Pakistan 'foils anti-US suicide bombing'

The suspects allegedly planned to target US diplomats

Authorities in Pakistan have arrested three men suspected of planning a suicide bomb attack against US diplomats in the southern city of Karachi.

Police chief Kamal Shah said the men were found with 10 kg (22 lb) of explosives in a Volkswagen car with which they planned to attack the diplomats.

They are highly committed people whose targets are foreigners, particularly Americans

Kamal Shah, police chief

"We have arrested three militants who were planning to target American diplomats," he told reporters.

"They have confessed," he said.

Inspector Shah said the suspects belonged to a radical Islamic movement, Harkat-e-Jihad, and had been trained in Afghanistan.

He said the men were "highly committed people whose targets are foreigners, particularly Americans in the post-11 September scenario".

One of the men had been the intended suicide bomber in an attack on a bus outside a hotel in Karachi in May, 2002, which killed 11 French naval technicians and three Pakistanis, the police chief said.

The announcement came a day before US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Christina Rocca was due to arrive in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

Explosives found

Inspector Shah said police were investigating a warehouse where the suspects had stored 250 sacks of explosives, weighing a total of 10,000 kg (22,000 lb).

He said the men planned to blow up their car in the Shara-e-Faisal district, a route used by diplomats in Karachi.

A spokesman for the US consulate in Karachi told French news agency AFP he was not aware of the arrests.

"This is being handled by the Pakistani authorities and is in the preliminary stages of investigation," AFP quoted the official as saying.

Would-be bomber

The police chief identified one of the detained men as 28-year-old Asif Zaheer, a suspect in the attack on the bus in May.

One of the suspects planned to blow up the bus

"This time he wanted to go himself for the suicide bombing and his target was two US diplomats," said Inspector Shah.

The BBC's correspondent in Islamabad, Zaffar Abbas, says very little is known about Harkat-e-Jihad.

He says members of the group have been arrested in the past in connection with militant activities.

The group includes guerrillas who fought alongside members of the former Taleban regime after it was ousted in a US-led campaign last year.